It’s true, the Winnipeg Jets are going to lose a pretty good player in the expansion draft next week.

That was always going to be the case and the Vegas Golden Knights can’t be competitive otherwise.

But it’s not going to be a player the Jets can’t replace or live without.

It could be a veteran like defenceman Toby Enstrom, who made a sacrifice when he waived his no-movement clause, which allowed the Jets to expose him and protect a goalie, three defencemen and seven forwards.

Or it could be a younger forward with upside like Marko Dano, who signed a one-year, one-way deal that carries an average annual value of $850,000 which allowed the Jets to meet the experience requirements up front (Shawn Matthias is the other forward available who played either 40 NHL games last season or 70 games over the past two seasons).

Backup goalie Michael Hutchinson or defenceman Ben Chiarot (who is a restricted free agent) could also be on the radar, though Enstrom or Dano are more likely to be chosen at this stage of the game.

Only Golden Knights general manager George McPhee and his staff know how they plan to utilize their 30 selections, which will be unveiled as part of the NHL Awards ceremony in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

As the official protected lists were revealed on Sunday morning by the NHL, the speculation surrounding which players could be on the move only began to ramp up.

However, it’s impossible to know for sure who might be chosen until all of the side deals are made public and that won’t be for a few more days.

McPhee is doing his best to accrue assets prior to the expansion draft, with first-round picks serving as the ultimate currency for an organization that also needs to stock its farm system and look at the future along with the present.

After Enstrom agreed to waive his no-movement clause, the Jets didn’t face the same type of crunch several other teams around the NHL did – like the New York Islanders, who protected five blue-liners among their eight skaters, or the Minnesota Wild, who chose to protect Jonas Brodin but left Eric Staal and Matt Dumba off their list.

The Jets aren’t believed to be one of those teams who had to make a side deal with the Golden Knights to prevent them from selecting someone who wasn’t on their protected list either.

That doesn’t mean Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff hasn’t been on the phone with McPhee in an effort to work something out, either for a defenceman or goalie the Golden Knights could select and then flip to Winnipeg after the expansion draft.

It’s still my belief the Jets get their goalie to share the crease with Connor Hellebuyck in free agency, with Brian Elliott and Steve Mason currently the front-runners to be brought on board.

As for the Jets protected list, there were no surprises on Sunday morning.

By going with the 7-3-1 format, the Jets were able to protect the maximum number of players while also keeping all of their 2017 draft picks (their own seven, plus an extra seventh-rounder picked up from the Montreal Canadiens at the 2016 NHL Draft) and exempt assets to make something happen on the trade front in and around the NHL Draft.

Potentially losing Enstrom would be a blow for the Jets, who aren’t exactly well-stocked on the left side of the defence corps and are expected to be looking to add another left-handed shooting blue-liner this off-season.

As for Dano, he’s an interesting study.

The left-winger has shown flashes since he was acquired by the Jets as part of the deal that sent Andrew Ladd to the Chicago Blackhawks.

There are concerns about his skating ability, but Dano plays the game with an edge and has some offensive upside for sure.

What can’t be argued is that the Jets are much better equipped to handle the loss of a forward, given the organizational depth up front in comparison to the back end.

Come Wednesday night, the Jets will find out which player they’ll be losing and move on to the next item on their off-season to-do list.

Almost Done!

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